Indian Foreign Service Exam 2025: IFS Exam Date & Eligibility

Entire UPSC Indian Foreign Service Exam 2025 details have been furnished on this blog, so if you are willing to apply for the Indian Foreign Service Exam 2025 then you must check entire details such as IFS Exam Date, Eligibility, Application Form, Pattern & Syllabus that complied in this blog.

The Indian Foreign Service popularly known as IFS is one of the Central Civil Services of the Government of India, which comes under Group A services. Selected IFS officers are involved in various issues related to foreign affairs, external affairs including such as trade, diplomacy, and cultural relations.

The Indian Foreign Service (IFS) is the official service of the Government of India for conducting diplomatic relations with foreign states and international organizations, and for representing India’s external interests in the larger global community. The IFS is headed by the Foreign Secretary and is responsible to the Ministry of External Affairs for the proper conduct and protection of Indian interests abroad.

IFS Exam 2025 – Quick Overview

UPSC Indian Foreign Service Exam 2025 Eligibility

The UPSC has announced the eligibility criteria for the Indian Foreign Service exam that will be held in the month of March 2025. The eligibility criteria of the exam have been provided in this section which is very important for students to fulfill and qualify for the examination. Eligibility criteria for the Indian Foreign Service Exam:

The eligibility criteria for the Indian Foreign Service Exam have been provided in this section. The candidates who fulfill the criteria can appear for the examination. The eligibility criteria for the examination is as follows: 1- The candidate should be a Citizen of India. 2- The candidate should be passed with at least 50% of marks in the qualifying examination from a University recognized by the Central Government or an Institution recognized by the University Grants Commission (UGC) 3- The candidate should have passed the written examination of Indian Foreign Service conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) under the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is not older than four years from the date of issue of such Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) certificate to such candidate in original

Nationality- For the Indian Foreign Service, the candidate must be a citizen of India.

Educational Qualification- To apply for this exam, one must hold a graduation degree (any discipline) from a recognized institute/ University.

Age Limit Criteria

To apply for this exam candidates must have attained the age of 21 years and should not have attained the age of 32 years.

Candidates should not be born earlier than 2nd August 1989 and not later than 1st August 2000. Age will be calculated as on 1st August 2025.

Eligible aspirants will be awarded appropriate age relaxation as follows:

How to Apply for UPSC IFS Application Form 2025

If you are going to apply for UPSC IFS Application Form then you must fill online Exam form before the last date. Keep in mind that, there are two methods needed to follow while filling the form in a proper manner so it is advised to all students follow both processes carefully.

• Launch on official of UPSC at – www.upsconline.nic.in.
• On the homepage, follow registration under the section and hit the ‘Part-I’ registration column
• Read the civil service examination 2025 Instructions carefully and then one needs to proceed to the registration form.
• At this point, candidates need to fill in all required information for the Indian Foreign Service 2025 registration process.
• After filling out all details, one needs to use provided Registration ID and password.
• At this point, hit on the ‘Part-II’ option and fill all required information in the application form.
• At this point, one needs to upload the scanned images of required documents
• Now is the time to pay fee payment by using debit, credit, and net banking options
• At last, take a print of the filled application form for future uses.

Application Fee

The user has to pay the IFS application fee both online and offline. To make payment in offline mode user needs to ‘By Cash’ in any branch of State Bank of India. Coming to the online mode, users can pay their application fee by using Visa/Rupay/Master/Credit/Debit cards or SBI’s Internet Banking.

 UPSC Indian Foreign Service Exam 2025 Pattern

Here we have covered the Indian Foreign Service Exam Pattern which is the body of all Indian Diplomats serving abroad. As per the IFS Exam Pattern 2025, candidates are selected through a multi-tiered exam which is one of the biggest in the Government of India bureaucracy.

Exam Pattern for UPSC IFS 2025

The IFS exam 2025 is going to conduct the following stages:

• Preliminary Examination (Objective Type)
• Main Examination (Written Exam)
• Interview (Personal Q & A).

UPSC IFS 2025 Preliminary Exam Pattern

These preliminary exams pattern has been furnished in this section which is also called the Civil Service Aptitude Test (CSAT). It comprises two papers as follows: let’s grab the entire information about the subject, time duration, and maximum marks from the below section.

UPSC IFS Main Exam Pattern 2025

The Main exam comprises a written exam and an interview test. The written exam consists of nine papers. All the papers will be of conventional essay type. Here are the details of the papers:

Total Marks of the Main Exam

Read- UPSC IPS Exam Syllabus 2025

Basic Guidelines

• Both the papers will have multiple-choice questions.
• The question paper of this exam will be in both Hindi and English languages.
• General Studies (Paper-II) will be of qualifying nature. The minimum qualifying marks have been set at 33%.
• Negative Marking – There is negative marking applicable for this exam so candidates who will be awarded 1/3 marks for the question will be deducted for every wrong response. It gets points for more than one answer; This will also be treated as a wrong answer even if one of the answers is correct. Note that no marks will be awarded or deducted for questions left unanswered.

IFS Exam Centres 2025

Knowing information about IFS exam centers is one of the important aspects that students should know so that they do not face any inconvenience in finding the right-center during the exam period and if they are not familiar with it then they will definitely face inconvenience which may have an impact on the students appear in the exam. Let us draw your attention to the below section and get the complete IFS exam centers information in one go.

Centres for Preliminary Exam 2025

Here we have provided IFS Preliminary exam 2025 information so candidates must draw their attention and grab information following centres from the below table.

Centres for Main Exam 2025

Are you going to appear Main Exam for Indian Foreign Service (IFS) then the below-shown centers surely be helpful for you where you can get information that in which state you have to appear for your exam accordingly you can start your preparation.

Final Lines!

The Indian Foreign Service Exam 2025 is also known as IFS Exam 2025 is the main instrument of the Government of India for conducting foreign relations. The IFS is the largest cadre of officers in the Ministry of External Affairs and has a distinguished history spanning over seven decades. The IFS officers are involved in various issues related to foreign affairs, external affairs including such as trade, diplomacy, and cultural relations. The primary goal of the IFS is to formulate and carry out policy recommendations on various issues of international relations and to represent India’s position in various fora on the basis of sound analysis and objective facts.

FAQs!

Which exam is for Indian Foreign Service?

Indian Foreign Service is one of the popular exams in India that is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) every year to select eligible candidates for Indian Foreign Service (IFS).

How do you qualify for Indian Foreign Service?

If you are willing to be the part of IFS Exam and want to qualify for the Indian Foreign Service exam then you must fulfill its eligibility criteria and other important information as follows-

• To apply for this exam candidates should belong to the Indian nationality and must hold a degree from any of the recognized universities or must have an equivalent qualification.
• Age Limits: Minimum age of 21 years age limit is required to apply for this exam.

Is IFS tougher than IAS?

As there is no doubt that the IAS exam is one of the popular and toughest exams in India but it talks about the higher level of competition than IFS is holding that it is because the IFS exam has fewer vacancies available than IAS.

Is IAS and IFS exam same?

Not similar but the selection process of candidates is similar for both posts which are conducted by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC)